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“How’s it going over there?” Karn asked.

“I did it. I mean, we did it. The ship is stable. I no longer feel like I’m on a rollercoaster.”

“You did great. We might make a pilot out of you yet.”

“I’m not sure space flight is for me.” Ivy looked around the cockpit. Actually, it felt satisfying to do this for herself. Maybe she could learn to pilot a ship and go investigate the place she now lived in.

“You’d make an amazing pilot, Ivy,” Billy said over the comm. “It took me three days to figure out navigation. You did it in three minutes.”

Ivy grinned. “I’m a natural. It could be time for a career change.”

“You want to leave My Single Alien?” Karn asked.

She shook her head. “No, that place will do for now if they’ll still have me.”

“You never know. There could be more adventures to be had in space.”

“Is that an offer?” Ivy asked.

“It might be.”

Ivy forced herself to stop grinning like an idiot. She needed to keep this together. She wasn’t out of danger yet. “Tell me how to get the autopilot back online.”

“Will do. We’re only fifteen minutes from your location. I can come on board and help you bring the ship back to the station.”

“Good idea. I don’t fancy trying to figure out how to dock one of these.”

“One step at a time, angel.”

There was that stupid grin again. “So, autopilot?”

“There are two buttons you need to press and then give the ship a command to activate autopilot.”

“Which one?” Ivy yelped as a hand wrapped around her throat and cut off the air supply. She gave a strangled gasp as she was yanked from her seat.

“Ivy, is something wrong?” Karn asked. “You haven’t puked, have you?”

Ivy grabbed Marcus’s hand as he glared down at her. She tried to kick him in the shins, but he kept her at arm’s length.

“You left me for dead,” he growled.

She shook her head as tears leaked out of her eyes. “I didn’t. I’d have gotten you medical attention.” Maybe, if she’d been in a good enough mood when they’d returned to Prodigy. “The ship. I needed to fix it, or we’d both be dead.”

“I always knew you were crazy,” Marcus said. “You always looked out for yourself.”

“Takes one to know one. You’re a selfish bastard.” Ivy heard Karn repeatedly calling her name and asking what was wrong, but she couldn’t reach the comm.

Marcus snorted. “It’s hardly a surprise I fucked your best friend. You’re such a heartless bitch. Everything had to be about you. You needed to be taught a lesson. What better than spreading your best friend’s legs and showing you how little you meant to both of us.”

Ivy clawed at his hand as black dots colored her vision. His words stabbed into her, making the tears come faster. She wasn’t a heartless bitch. She had to look out for herself. No one else cared.

“It’s time to get what you owe me,” Marcus said. “All the times you nagged me and complained about me not being good enough, this is payback.” He swung around and shoved her away from him.

Ivy grabbed her throat as she gasped in air. “I’m not like that. I owe you nothing.”

“You are exactly like that. You messed up everything by leaving.”

“You mean I took my money with me.” Ivy’s throat ached from where Marcus had squeezed so hard.